Even as Air Deccan, the first low-budget airline in the country, today announced its plans to start an additional evening flight to the holy city of Amritsar, Spicejet, another low-cost carrier has launched late night flights.

Air Deccan announced it would launch an additional evening flight from Delhi to Amritsar from August 24. It is already operating a daily morning flight to Amritsar with the pricing at Rs 1975 for one way. The airline said it would launch an additional flight to Amritsar due to the tremendous response it had received with load factor averaging over 90 per cent.

The bookings for the new flight will begin tomorrow and the fare structure will be same as the morning flight.

Amritsar, August 21As many as 26 passengers were off-loaded from the Air-India flight to Birmingham and Toronto in view of the overbooked flight emanating from Mumbai via Delhi.

The agitated passengers were later sent to Delhi by a special air-conditioned coach for taking flights to the UK and Canada.

The Station Manager of Air India, Mr Ashwani Arora, said that the Air-India flight had become very popular with a large number of NRI Punjabi population settled in the UK and Canada during its three months of operation. He said that the carrier had been facing this problem, as more and more passengers were opting for this flight. Mr Arora said it had been the general practice to accommodate such passengers through additional facilities, including stay in hotels and provide them seats on other flights. Special arrangement was also made for the off-loaded passengers so that they faced little inconvenience to reach their destination.

Meanwhile the passengers who could not board the Air-India flight pleaded with the airport staff to accommodate them in the flight but the airlines authorities expressed their inability to do so in view of the packed flight.

An aggrieved passenger, Ms Sushma Sharma, a club class ticket holder, who had to attend the marriage of her niece in Toronto on August 22, rued that she was carrying wedding gifts and other items, and now she was in a quandary as there was no chance of her attending the wedding.

Mr Vijay Gupta, a Canadian national, who had to join his job next week, faced a similar predicament, as he would not be able to report for duty on time.

Mr Arora, however, said that both these passengers did not carry confirmed tickets as their travel agent in Jalandhar had misled them that Air-India would definitely would provide them seats.

In view of the popularity of the Air India’s direct flight, the confederation of Indian Industry has sought more daily flights.

Moscow, August 21Russian carrier Aeroflot is weighing the option of operating flights between Amritsar and Moscow to cater to the increasing demand of people from Punjab travelling to Europe, Canada and the USA.

The airliner, which operates flights between Moscow and Delhi and also Mumbai, “is exploring the possibility (of flying to Amritsar). The feasibility studies are on”, Mr Tatiana Zotova, Marketing Director of Aeroflot, told a group of visiting Indian reporters here.

As Amritsar has the potential to offer enhanced passenger flow to Europe and North America, the airliner is keen on exploring the possibility of operating between Amritsar and Moscow, he said.

Carrying on an average 25,000 passengers per month to Moscow, the airline was optimistic that a new route would largely cater to the people from Punjab frequenting Toronto, London and Milan. — PTI

Air Deccan, India's first low cost carrier, today announced a change in flight timings with effect from October 31, 2005, to March 26, 2006. The new schedules were available on the Air Deccan website www.airdeccan.net. All passengers have been requested to check the timings of other flights with the All India 24/7 Call Centre at 080 - 39008888, according to a release here.

Title: Re: Delhi- Amritsar flight
Post by sol(Guest) on 11. Dec 2005 at 04:18
can anyone tell me if they've actually flown this airline before? what is their on-time rate like? and what are their delays like? 1 hour-2hours????

i'm only concerned with delhi to amritsar!

Title: Re: Delhi- Amritsar flight
Post by H Singh(Guest) on 12. Dec 2005 at 16:58
Trvalled on Air Deccan in April.... A320 used in between Delhi Bangalore Delhi was newest one i have travelled till now (including British Airways, Luftansa etc).

They were on time both ways but do call them before leaving for Airport as they have different timings for summer and winter if you don't to wait at Airport.

Food or Drinks served onboard are expensive (more than UK prices), TV screens were showing same recorded CNBC documentry.

But if you are looking for cheaper option by Air, Air deccan is the best. You will spend 90 mins in Delhi to reach airport from central delhi, 60 mins flight timings, 60 mins wastage at airports and additional 60 mins for travelling to city in Amritsar. I would prefer Shatabdi express (train) which will cost same, seldomly late, Best quality food and services free of cost and no hassles at all.